There is a lot of very careful labor that goes into making the teas I drink, so I take good care of it both out of respect for those who made it and because I get better results.

I was a bit fumble-fingered at first, so I stuck to teaware I could afford to lose, and worked at the practice that good tea and good teaware require focus. Since I'm an engineer, I work with dangerous materials and situations at times that also require a pause for focus and review of what must be done before taking an action, so I just had to build the habit of doing the same with tea. Now it's rarely a problem.

As with safety protocols at work, it's always worth considering and regularly reviewing whether any obstacles to perfect handling can be removed. The standard rule with hazardous liquids (even as simple a chlorine bleach) is that you never carry the primary container without putting it in a secondary container, such as a bucket, to help contain the liquid should some accident occur. Boiling water is a hazardous liquid.

Teaware isn't hazardous, but it is delicate, so while sometimes hand-carrying it is the best option, often the secondary container is a good idea. I usually carry teaware on a tray.

Before you move a hazardous material or delicate material in a lab, you pause to inspect that the location it will move to is clear and ready and that there are no obstacles in the path that could cause a problem if you instantaneously turned into someone with no sense of balance in mid-transport.

These practices and regular review to make sure you're not cutting corners work well in lab or industrial settings, so I thought they were worth practicing at home. If you always follow protocol and never deviate, the likelihood of an absent-minded slip-up is low. Plus you're already set up with the skills and habits should you need to handle working with an injury or your own old age.

Happy 101st birthday Chip (or does that number after your name mean you were the 101st member?). A proud example of how tea keeps us young.

I'm enjoying another one of the puerhs from the OTTI, and thinking about how much I learned from Tea Chat. Now that I've got the hang of brewing it, drinking puerh is no longer stressful.

I take equal care of my tea and tea ware, because they're both important and contribute to my enjoyment of tea. I've been avoiding "collecting" tea ware, so I've got 1 of each at this point, small, medium and large gaiwans, a small tokoname kyusu, and a larger glazed kyusu. Oh, and a motley assortment of homemade and other tea cups.

CynTEAa wrote:Hello and Happy TeaDay to everyone! Just wanted to pop in and wish the CHIPster a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! Hugs!!

Thank you kindly!

AdamMY wrote:Happy Birthday Chip!!! I hope you get some more Sencha in the House Today!

Did you send some??? Thanks!

It is actually a possiblilty that sencha will arrive today. Ironically, today will not include sencha for the first time in almost a year, unless it does arrive.

JRS22 wrote:Happy 101st birthday Chip (or does that number after your name mean you were the 101st member?). A proud example of how tea keeps us young.

Actually, it is my eleventy first (111th) but the forum does not allow insertion beyond 100 (which I put in last year). A speech I am paraphrasing from another famous eleventy firster ...

a famous hobbit, paraphrased wrote:"Alas, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable TeaDrinkers." [cheers abound.] "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."